The Variety That Comes From Sketching

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Larry Marshall

If I did a statistical analysis of the my sketching subjects, it would be clear that I’m a building portrait kind of guy. I just love ’em and enjoy going out, finding them, and sketching them. In fact, being out in the city, sitting on a stool as people walk by, is a major part of what I enjoy about it. I’ve never been much for sketching from photos and this is probably why.

This little guy was hanging out over a path I was walking on in the park. He was actually moving quite quickly, for him, but I had time to do this quick sketch.

I guess it’s true for most people, regardless of how or what kind of art they do; we all have a preferred subject type, whether it is flowers, landscapes, boats, or still lifes. But sketching provides something that other forms do not – the ability to sketch something quickly. This translates into sketchers drawing a much wider variety of things than an artist who must set up an easel and has a mindset of hanging the result on a wall.

I was out for a long walk and sat down in a park. Something suggested that I sketch this basketball hoop that was sitting idle. Definitely a ‘no big deal’ sketch. Took less than ten minutes but it was ten minutes of fun.

We sketchers are happy with these quick sketches, often of subjects that no other group would ever do. We proudly show off our sketch of a garbage can, a fire hydrant or maybe even a dead fish. Why our brains work that way I do not know but I do know that our ability to do this without devoting a lot of time to it is the reason we do it so regularly.

They’re repaving a street near my house and I thought this small roller was unique.

This occurred to me as I was looking at the last few sketches I did in my little Moleskine watercolor book (3×5). Excepting the roller, which took me twenty minutes or so, these sketches were done very quickly, with no particular goal in mind other than to be sketching. All were fun.

I went birding on a ‘too windy’ day and ended up huddled behind a tree. Did this sketch of a fungus.

Do You Experiment With Sketching Styles?

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Larry Marshall

In the two years that I’ve been sketching I’ve actually developed a ‘style’, which surprises me somewhat as it seemed not long ago I was wondering if I would ever be able to draw anything, let alone have a ‘style.’

I like my style, which is more ‘illustrative’ than artistic. Some might even claim it to be cartoonish. I sometimes call it that. In any case, when I sit down to draw something, the resultant sketch reflects that style.

My style has two drawbacks. The first is that those who don’t speak sketcher try to fit it into ‘fine art’ and, well, it just doesn’t. Some day ‘finished’ sketching will be acknowledged by the art community at large but so far, it’s tough slogging. The other drawback to my style is that it’s not ‘fast’. My sketches take longer than those done by people using looser, less detailed approaches. This is not bad or good but sometimes it limits my ability to quickly capture a scene.

So, I sometimes experiment with quicker, looser ways of sketching. Of course I do a fair amount of quick-sketching of people but here I’m talking about sketching things. Here are a few examples of those attempts.

I did this little sketch of a piece of the Quebec City skyline, experimenting not only with very quick (only a couple minutes) sketch but also with a washable red ink. I kinda-sorta liked the result. It’s no more than two inches square.

Using the same pen/ink combo I decided to see if I could grab enough detail from a very complex hotel facade in 3-4 minutes to make me happy. Can’t say this pleased me much but maybe…with lots of practice… naw…not working for me 🙂

Here’s another experiment. It’s only about 2×2 and my thoughts were to do a quick, small sketch that could be part of a journal page. I really would like to start adding annotations to some of my sketches and to that end I sketched this tiny house in about five minutes, including the watercolor.

I was sitting in a park in ‘lower town’ of Quebec City and there’s a row of buildings that look down on the park, trees filling the area in between. I decided to quick-sketch it. Probably took me 10-15 minutes, which for some is not ‘quick’ but if I were to do this with my ‘style’ it would take at least four times that long.

I sort of like the results. The trees aren’t sufficiently developed for my taste and I hate restated lines on buildings (buildings aren’t supposed to look like they’re vibrating). This one was done on two pages of a 3×5 notebook so it’s a bit larger than the others.

I’ll continue experimenting with different styles and approaches as I think I learn something every time I do it. Who knows what my ‘style’ will be in another year. Do you experiment with styles?

Sketching at Chute Montmorency

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Chute Montmorency is a large waterfall just east of Quebec City. It’s a major tourist attraction, a mini-Niagara Falls I suppose. It has all the tourist amenities. Large facility at the base of the falls greets tourists and there’s a large parking lot to accommodate a constant parade of vehicles.

There’s also a tram and a smiling attendant with their hand out. You can pay the price or you can climb a veritable labyrinth of stairs up to the top of the falls. We did neither.

Locals, wanting to get to the top take a metro bus that drops them near the top and next to a hotel that sits at the tram terminus. There’s a wonderful boardwalk that tourists walk along to the falls and it provides spectacular views of the falls as well as the St. Lawrence River. We took the bus.

I met my sketching buddy, Claudette, on the bus and we walked the short trail down to the west end of a large pedestrian bridge that runs right across the top of the falls. The views are pretty spectacular from there. So, what do a couple of urban sketchers do? We set up at the end of the bridge and drew the bridge. We’ll draw the trees, beautiful canyon, and the falls themselves some other day. I guess it truly is a mindset as both of us did this without much thought.

I decided to work in a small format as I’ve been doing a series of smaller sketches. I got out my little Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and started drawing. Claudette did likewise with her 5×8 Strathmore 467-series sketchbook. These are beautiful, brown-covered watercolor sketchbooks, though they are in landscape mode which is not idea in my view.

It seemed that we both finished our linework about the same time as I noticed that she was getting out her watercolors as I reached for mine. She had hers. I did not. I’d left my watercolor kit sitting on my desk.

While disappointing, it allowed me to stand up and move around, giving my old knees a stretch. Then I sat down and did a quick, small sketch of Claudette working on her sketch. Obviously, I added color to my sketches when I got home.

Claudette composed an interesting view of the bridge, sort of zooming in on just the entrance area. I decided to capture more of the entirety of the scene. I like hers better. I always do.

We wandered up Avenue Royale which is a very old street lined with older, though often completely renovated houses. These are majestic houses with lots of what my dad used to call ‘gingerbread’ trim, large front doors and porch areas.

We only found a few dozen things we wanted to sketch but it was time for lunch. Feeling recharged by good food and conversation, we returned to the falls area and I sketched this little snack kiosk, again in my 3×5 watercolor book. Then, we hopped on the bus and came home. Paraphrasing the Terminator…”we’ll be back.”

Capturing The Motion Of A City

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I’m primarily a building sketcher. I don’t have to worry much about my subject walking or driving away. But I’m also an urban sketcher and things do move in cities. Trains, planes, and automobiles are constantly on the move, as are buses, construction equipment, and parade floats.

How do you capture complex objects that won’t sit still? You can use photos but I’m not that fond of sitting in my office drawing pictures. To be honest, I have difficulty drawing from photos. I’ve spent enough time field-sketching that I just ‘see’ so much more in real life than I can see in a photo.

I did a spur of the moment experiment and I thought I’d share it with you. I was walking along ‘my’ river and at one point there’s a train bridge that crosses the river and heads into the downtown train station.

As luck would have it the train from Montreal pulled across the bridge and stopped. It does this because it has to wait while they throw a bunch of switches so it can back through a wye (trackage to turn a train) so that, ultimately, it can back into the station. In less than a minute the train backs out of the scene.

I decided to sketch it so I got out my Stillman and Birn Zeta (5×8) and a pencil. That’s right, a pencil. I quickly drew a long box to represent the train, the slope of the nose of the train, and several lines indicating where the major parts of the bridge intersected with the train. Then, the train was gone.

I got out my pen and started drawing the bridge. I thought my brain was going to melt at times while trying to figure out all the angles of the steel-truss bridge but it was also fun. I left the site with a bridge with a big, long empty box inside it.

When I got home I sifted through my photos, surfed the internet, and ultimately found a picture of the ViaRail train engine, taken from its left side. This gave me all the detail information I needed to complete my sketch. I did have a bit of difficulty envisioning the proper perspective but most of what I needed to add were squarish panels, so it wasn’t too bad. I liked the result. I have captured a train.

I suppose an urban sketcher purist would take issue with my use of a photo this way but, to me, the hard part of this sketch was done on site and I am now looking for other ways to capture moving objects. Next stop…to sit across from a metrobus stop, drawing a bus; the buses arrive/depart every 10 minutes. Only a few seconds per bus but there are lots of buses. Wish me luck (grin).

Taxi Guys Need A Place Too!

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Firemen have their firehouse. Policemen have donut shops. Sketchers have libraries, coffee shops, and street corners. And taxi cab drivers need a place too. In Quebec it looks like this:

At least the one not far from my house looks like this. I’m not exactly sure what they do in there but they have a washing machine outside. I suspect it’s something of an oasis that lets the drivers get out of the car once in a while. The bright yellow building and the orange background wall conspired to insist that I draw them, and so I did. Stillman & Birn Zeta (5×8) using a Uniball Signo UM151 pen. It’s hard for a fountain pen guy to admit it, but I love these pens and their waterproof ink.